PAINTINGS YOU CAN'T WIPE YOUR ASS WITH

Visiting art professor brings an aesthetic of hygienics to the VAC

l a u r a p u c k e t t

The boxes students used to haul stuff to Davidson have become trash, or at most, makeshift furniture in dorm rooms, but for Ray Kleinlein such a box has become art. Box is one of ten of Kleinlein's paintings now on exhibit at the VAC, part of the faculty show that runs until October 9. Also on exhibit are Herb Jackson's colorful conceptual paintings, Cort Savage's new bronze sculptures, and Russ Warren's vivid horses, but across the foyer, white predominates. By choosing a mostly neutral, largely white palette, Kleinlein transformed his passion for looking at the object and painting it in a straight-forward way from the traditional realism of his graduate years at Ohio University to the understated still-lives now on display. His influences reflect this combination of realism and minimalism, including William Kalf and the Dutch masters, Georgio Morandi, Gerhardt Richter, Wayne Thiebaud, Frank Stella, and Agnes Martin. The "blank" nature of the white palette became a foundation for detailed play with varying textures (the slick Coil versus the nubby White Still Life (toilet paper)), "sweetening up the color" (Blue and Orange), and minimalist composition. Bold color, such as the "out of the tube red" that accents White Socks, is the "icing" on these sheet-cake paintings.

Ray Kleinlein, White Still Life

It is this very simplicity--the shape of a Q-tip, the folds of a Kleenex--that Kleinlein celebrates in his paintings. By focusing on still-lives of mundane, often singular objects, Kleinlein persuades viewers to "loo[k] at the overlooked, focu[s] on things with a sense of reverence." His repeated decisions to paint white objects are intuitive; because he has painted them for so long, they are what he notices. This heightened awareness and intimacy that Kleinlein develops with his subjects (like the cardboard box which "became like a friend" after several paintings) is transferred to the viewers as they are faced with larger-than-life details realistically rendered with subtle variations of neutrality, and ideally awakens viewers to the "beauty in everyday objects all around us."

As realist, formalist, and minimalist paintings, Kleinlein's work stands apart from that of the other Davidson faculty, but he thinks that "the boundaries between the schools of art, the traditional school on this side and the more conceptual or abstract on this side, those boundaries are blurring...[and] that's good for students." Kleinlein is pushing the boundaries of his students in his two Basic Studio classes, giving them a first project not limited by medium or convention in order to open their semester-long exploration of the secrets of making art. While Kleinlein has only been here a few weeks, his transition from the Virginia schools Longwood College and Hampton City College has been a smooth one. He is thrilled to be working with such talented faculty in such good facilities, and he has enjoyed a warm welcome from the Davidson community. He is settling in, ready to begin painting here and to continue his work of "pleasure, the joy that you give the visual world."

{ NEXT WEEK: paintings you can wipe your ass with. Stay tuned, kids!